Another graduate!

  This past June, my second daughter graduated from High School!  I know it is cliche, but time really does fly, especially the last 4 years of High School.   I am now at home with my hubby and 5 sons, so I joke around and say I live in the Frat House.   My boys say Sundays are dedicated to football, which is OK, because I now have an excuse to scrapbook!  

The Corsage

I know that Prom season has long passed, but I just scrapped this page while away on a scrap weekend. This picture was so pretty, that it deserved it's own page. Not sure if you can see the spatter of ink around the photos, but it was made by randomly spraying Glitter Mist on the paper before scrapping any pictures. So easy to do this page in minutes!

Wow, I'm on a roll!

Ok girls, I was asked to do a card workshop at one of my local 55+communities. We picked a fall theme and these are the cards I designed for the ladies to make. I hope they fall in love with this hobby as I have.

Wiping the dust off my blog!

Hello everyone!

I am now wiping the dust off my blog due to inactivity. I have actually been very busy these days. With 7 children, who wouldn't be? I successfully got my oldest off to college. Our second oldest is a senior, so I am right back visiting new colleges with her. Baseball, back to school nights, homework...oh yeah and working too! I was blessed to have gone away to a weekend crop and sucessfully made 26 pages! Here are some of my favorites. Hope you like!

The Scrap Your Heart Out Club is BACK!

It is so exciting to start scrapbook club again! As a mom of 7 , the holidays are extremely hectic, so I chose to take Nov and Dec off from club. With the new catalog in full swing, my club members are psyched to get started again. We chose "You Rock" for this month's theme. This is such a fun paper pack to work with and since most of my club members are moms with tweens who love Rock Band, this was the perfect paper for us! We are following the Workshop on the Go's Layout.

First snowfall of the season

I just love the first snowfall of the season. Driving to church this morning was such a joy looking at the winter wonderland. Here are some pictures of my hometown. I can't wait to get them scrapped!

It's been a long, long, time

Hi everyone. You all probably thought I abandoned my blog forever. I have been busy getting my PA Real Estate License and I am happy to say I even have my first listing! Not bad for being in the business for 1 month. I am also busy getting ready for my Christmas Craft Fair. Here are some samples of what will be for sale.

Scrap Your Heart Out Club Layouts...Grace

Sorry that I have been MIA most of the summer. I have been studying for my PA Real Estate License all summer, and the end is near. I now have an agent job, and what makes me laugh is selling $20 paper packs is a lot less intimidating than selling a $250,000 house!

I went to a Creating Keepsakes Convention this summer and learned some fabulous new techniques. I encorporated what I learned into my club kits. Here are two layout we will be working on. The first one is detailed, using stamping techniques on the chipboard. The second layout is easy peasy, just using paper and stickease. I thought this would be great for back to school layouts for the high school kids, since I have two going to high school this year. Not to mention 5 other grades as well. Enjoy!

It's A Thanks-a-bration

YOU DO SO MUCH FOR EVERYONE ELSE; LET CLOSE TO MY HEART DO SOMETHING
for you! This August 3–17, place a minimum order of $100 and you not only get the
August Stamp of the Month, My Acrylix® It’s Your Day stamp set, for FREE, but
we’ll throw in a My Refl ections® Level 2 paper packet as well (a total retail
value of $35.90)! How about even more thanks? We’ll also cover the tax
and shipping/handling on the free products! Act fast, time is already
running out. This Thanks-a-bration only lasts until August 17!

Close to My Heart's August Stamp of the Month

Do you frequently need a birthday card and wished you had one already made? Then here is the perfect stamp set for you! You can have this stamp set for free with a $100 dollar order, PLUS, Close to my Heart will add in a free paper pack too. See Details above.

Another Cat Story

I love my cats...I really do. I love cats so much I have 7 of them. What I don't like is the presents they leave me. Last week, as I just took a sip of my freshly brewed coffee, I see, out of the corner of my eye, a black fuzzy thing walking across my kitchen floor. It appeared in my eyesight the exact moment the coffee cup touched my lips. Can you guess where the coffee landed? Yup, on me, on the floor, on the counter, NOT in my mouth where it was supposed to be. So what was this black fuzzy thing you ask? It was a bird, flapping its wings while my cat, was batting at it. After I screamed, I yelled for my husband to get out of bed and get rid of it!!! I yelled for my teenage son to get rid of it!!! No one responded (no I'm not surprised) so I mustered up my courage and swept up the bird and deposited it outside.

We are in the midst of All Star Season with Little League. I have been busy with the boys at the games, so I have not been very crafty lately, However, I finally had some time this weekend and played with some new papers. some layouts are Close to my Heart, while others are a mixture of various brands. I hit a sale where the papers were just .39$, so who could resist a sale like that!

All Before Coffee

I dedicate this story to my upline, Carol, who loves to hear of my interesting days. I got up at 6am to let the dog out. I discovered a present from one of my 7 cats on our front porch. Can you guess? No not a mouse this time, but a bunny! Stinkin cats! I schlepp on my flip flops still in my pj's and take the poor bunny out to our wetlands. Note that since it has been raining in biblical proportions around here, I am quite wet up to my ankles and it's chilly outside! As I come back inside, I hear my oldest cat hacking up quite the hairball. I think just great, another mess to clean up. I proceed to feed the fish, the cats and the dog. Mind you, coffee isn't even on yet, but hey, I'm on a roll. While I am feeding the cats, I fold the laundry from the dryer and put more clothes into the dryer. Then I remembered I did an adorable layout yesterday and just had to post it now. So here is Matthew at just 15 months (he is now 3) discovering his image in the mirror. And yes, I now have a cup of coffee in my hands.

A three Year Old's Vocabulary

One of my favorite pasttimes of raising a toddler is toddler speak. They have the cutest voices, the cutest inflection and the cutest phrases. As a mom, I'm sure we all remember the cute phrases our children said. I wanted to create a layout to reflect this time in Matthew's life. Next month may be a whole new set of phrases, but for the month of June 2009, here is what was popular in toddler vocabulary.

Deleting the beginning "s" sound from many words. So for example, socks and shoes are hocks and hoes. Starvin is tarvin. You can see the pattern here.

One day he'll speak correctly, his voice will deepen, but for now I am going to cherish his toddler voice in my heart.

It's a Zoo around Here

After visiting Yvette Poulson's blog, I became inspired by her "It's a Zoo around here layout" With 7 children in the house, my house feels like a zoo with the animals on the loose. This layout is a reflection of one of our crazy, but fun days around here. We had an unusually warm day this past April. Temps reached the high 80's. My son, Matthew, who is 3, got a hold of the hose and began squirting his siblings. He had so much fun being the one in CONTROL for a change, since he is usually the one bossed around. His brothers and sisters had a blast too! Matthew sprayed just about everthing that afternoon, even sprayed inside the front door! Just one of these memories we'll always remember.

Sorry for the bad pics. I have a new camera, and I am not very happy with the quality. It's a Nikon Cool Pix. I think I better read the manual. LOL.

Items used: Animal Cookies, C1360 It's a Zoo, D1332 Boutique Borders, Dimensional Elements Letters.

A Deal a Day in June

LOVE A GREAT DEAL? HOW ABOUT 30 GREAT DEALS?In June you'll find a different deal each day on my website- a product special available only that day and only while supplies last*. Watch for popular products offered FREE with a stamp set purchase (size A, B, C, D, or E only; excludes K-size and Stamp of the Month) and all-the-rage goodie boxes filled with enviable items priced well below retail. Irresistible shipping discounts are included!Check my website every day in June for that day's deal and add to your scrapbooking and cardmaking supplies while saving a bundle. Remember, each special is good only for that day, only while supplies last, and only on my website. Visit often and save!Click here daily to check out the latest deal.*Tax and shipping/handling may apply. Deals are available for 23 hours beginning on the day announced and while supplies last. New deals are posted at 9:00 am (MT) each day of June.

My Spring Garden

My garden is finally maturing into a Spring Beauty! I took these pictures in the early spring so I could remember how pretty the gardens looked. Now, just a few weeks later, all of these blooms are gone for the year, but new ones are starting (another scrap moment). I am so happy I took the time to capture my garden in the early spring.

CTMH items used to create this page.

Life Delights Paper

Inks: Blush, Chocolate, and Hollyhock

Stamps: Chocolate Alphabet Large, Retired SOTM... butterfly wings

Dimensional Elements Borders

Create a shade paint

White Daisy Flowers

Clear Sparkles

Finally, a new post, Happy Memorial Day

I am so happy to have completed this layout. It has been so long since I have been creative. My daughter's girlfriend loves my scrapbooking layouts and asked me to make her one from when she spent the week with us last year at Myrtle Beach. I did this double layout in about 1/2 hour. It was so easy!

Items used:

Moon Doggie Level 2 Paper Pack

C1356 Extreme Happiness

D1143 Do Nothing

Cranberry Ink

Desert Sand Ink

Now that the summer is unofficially upon us, I will be making more summery fun layouts!

Living at the baseball field

Where have I been some may ask? At the baseball fields. Warm nights turning chilly...cheering for the home team...smelling burgers, fries....watching kids having a catch in the field...the cheers and roars of a hit, a strikeout or a spectacular catch. I have been a part of this since April and my son's teams will end their season this June. Then I will able to scrapbook all the wonderful memories they have given me. Here are some memories to share with you all.

Another rainy Monday

It's raining here, and it is suppose to rain all day. I wish I could scrap, but I truly have about 20 loads of wash to catch up on. With 9 people in the house, my wash consumes me. Last week at my all day crop, I used the new flip flap pages. Here is a sample of my artwork. I really should post the directions, but I am lucky enough to get a picture up on the blog. My daughter's junior prom is in 3 weeks, so we bought her dress yesterday. I'll show you the pics later.

This layout uses the Moon Doggie paper, Moon Doggie stickease, and a flip flap page. So simple!

Moon Doggie at the Beach

I finally got around to posting some artwork. I just love spring and have been busy, busy, busy. Last week at my all day Diva crop, I took along my handy keynotes (which I just love by the way thanks to CTMH) and copied a fantastic layout using Moon Doggie, the Borders Dimensional Elements, versamark ink and white embossing powder. The result was fantastic and I will be teaching this technique at the all day crop for Craftin for a Cure with the Relay for Life.